Balloon Festival

The festival attracts over 250,000 visitors at Northampton's Racecourse Park.

Chaz by the balloon

In the run up to the event, pilots have been flying their balloons in preparation of the flights and our reporter Chaz Harrison joined them.

After waking up at 4am in the morning, and driving to a field in Wollaston to prepare for the flight Chaz was curious of what to expect "I've never been in a balloon before, so I am a little nervous. The actual rigging of the balloon took a while but once it was up and running, it wasn't as scary as first thought".

The balloon fully blown

Balloon pilots do at least five flights a week which last for an hour, mainly for parties, and festivals travelling all over the country.

John Tyrrell the pilot of the flight has been flying balloons for over 12 years. He can fly up to 18 people in a balloon. "I've taken part in the Balloon Festival for many years now, actually my wife does most of the planning and organising. It’s always a great feeling when we get the balloons up in the air"

View from the balloon

Many people believe that the more wind the better the flight but actually it's the opposite. Previous years the Balloon Festival saw only a few balloons take off because of the high winds, so John hopes that the weather is a better for the event to be a success.

Hear Chaz's journey in the balloon: